Anthony Nwakaegho/NaijaAgroNet
The
Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Dr Kingsley Moghalu,
dropped the hint on a sideline at the end of the Euromoney Conference held in
Lagos, and said that the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk
Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) initiative has boosted agricultural
lending to farmers in the country.
NaijaAgroNet recalls that the agricultural sector
has received tremendous attention due to the transformation agenda of President
Jonathan’s administration that has envisioned the sector as the key to economic
growth and development in Nigeria.
However, available data from CBN revealed that
NIRSAL which guarantees up to 75 per cent of the bank loans to the sector was
initiated in July 2013 to grow loans to the sector to four per cent of banks’
total loans, from the average of 1.5 per cent in 2009.
For the records, NIRSAL which is the
initiative of the CBN, the Bankers’ Committee and the Federal Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), seeks to create incentives and modify all the
processes that will encourage the growth of formal credit, direct and indirect,
for the agriculture value chain.
*With additional
report from Nation
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